Readings

Charlotte Ashley is a writer, editor, critic, bookseller, and Alexandre Dumas fanatic living in Toronto. Her newest story, “A Fine Balance”, appears in the Nov/Dec 2016 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Charlotte will talk about physicality in SFF literature, exploring how we can use action to talk about broader themes of ableism, militarism, gender roles, bullying, and more. She is on Twitter @CharlotteAshley.

Herb Kauderer is a prolific poet and also an author, book reviewer, and was a professor of English at Hillcrest College. He has published ten collections of poetry. He wrote the film Beyond the Mainstream exploring all flavors of fandom. His poems are published in Analog,Grievous Angel, Polu Texni, Eye to the Telescope, and the Oct/Nov issue of Asimov’s, and he has been nominated for poetry awards including the Rhysling, Dwarf Star, and Elgin Awards.

Tonya Liburd’s story “The Ace of Knives” is in the anthology Postscripts to Darkness 6 and is used by Nisi Shawl in her workshops as an example of ‘code switching.’ Her fiction has been longlisted for the 2015 Carter V. Cooper/Exile Short Fiction Competition. She is the Associate Editor of Abyss & Apex magazine.

Caitlin Sweet (aka “Unicorn Girl”) is a fantasy author whose works make some readers long for the more upbeat, rainbows-and-puffy-kittens creations of George RR Martin. Peter Watts (aka “Giant Squid”) is one of those scientist-turned-SF writers whose science fiction is so hard it not only reads like a textbook, but has actually been used as one. The union of two such disparate authors (aka “Unicorn Squid”, or US) should by rights be an abomination against the laws of nature. Somehow, it seems to work. Their first creative collaboration may or may not be entitled Nellie the Nephron.